BaflHm 



B^B 






Class _444 
Book_ 



1902, 



CopyrightN . 



COPYRIGHT deposit; 



HOW TO 

TREAT THE TRUSTS 

AND HOW TO 

WIN IN 1904 



THE 



Bbbcy press 

PUBLISHERS 
114 
FIFTH AVENUE 

XonDon NEW YORK Montreal 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two COP*E3 ReCCIVCO 

MAY. 19 1902 

Copyright entry 
CLASS '<txXo. NO, 

33369 

COPY B. 



JK 



^3 17 

^o -z. 

H2- 



Copyright, 190*, 

by 

THE 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

About the Plan s i I 

Trusts 3 

What Started the Trusts 6 

Trust Labor 16 

Back Again 22 

The Biscuit Trust 26 

The Way Out 30 

As to the Platform 36 

Some Remarks , 40 

The Moral Right 44 

Not Alone in Plan 45 

In a Bad Plight. 48 

Clergymen's Opinions 51 

List of 300 Trusts 58 

Strict Constructionists » 77 

Lord Byron Says 80 

Who Should Lead 80 

Ask the Commoner 81 



HOW TO TREAT THE TRUSTS 
AND HOW TO WIN IN 1904 

r ABOUT THE PLAK 

This plan for treating the trusts I call the 
Guarantee Plan, as it guarantees justice to every 
interest — to the consumer, to the trust worker 
and to the trust owner, while it prepares the 
way for the peaceful evolution of our economic 
system. Furthermore I expect this reform 
through the democratic party, although I pro- 
pose to show that there is only one way, under 
the present conditions by which that party can 
be elected in 190 

The Commoner says the democrats have sub- 
mitted their plan and asks the republicans who 
are in power to submit theirs. I fear that our 



2 How to Treat the Trusts 

republican friends will be rather backward in 
submitting any plan that would be satisfactory 
to the people, however satisfactory it might be 
to the trusts.* On the other hand the demo- 
cratic plan frightened the trust workmen at the 
last presidential election, and as they held the 
balance of power in the three great states where 
trusts are most in evidence, they ran McKinley 
in, although I believe that most of them wanted 
to vote for Bryan. As the ISTew York Journal 
said, "it was the trust issue that really cut." 

* Note. Since writing* the above President Roose- 
velt has recommended the Publicity idea in his 
message to Congress. It is a concession to public 
opinion which the author did not expect from a repub- 
lican administration, and President Roosevelt is en- 
titled to the credit for it. 



and How to Win in 1904. 



TRUSTS. 

r K Kansas writer says that "everybody is 
talking about trusts and almost everybody is 
opposed to them. People don't understand 
what a trust is. They notice it when it gets 
very large and powerful but fail to see the 
same principle operating in the smallest busi- 
ness. " Of course the principle is the same, 
whether on a large or small scale. 

A trust is generally formed by uniting the 
manufacturers of the country in the same line, 
or enough of them to control their special trade 
into a stock company or corporation. Thus 
having virtually no competitors to contend with 
the trust can tax their customers what they 
choose for their goods. Sometimes several 
kindred trusts, like the American Steel Hoop 
Company, the American Steel and Wire Com- 



4 How to Treat the Trusts 

pany, etc., combine into one big trust like the 
United States Steel corporation, capital over 
$1,100,000,000. And the time may come when 
they- will all be united into one national trust, 
owned by the people. 

Call them what you will, trust, company or 
corporation, the reason for their existence is 
always the same, to avoid competition. Some- 
times they utilize the old plants and factories 
and sometimes they build new ones, according 
to the nature of the business. 

Thus the cracker trust would try to do all 
its baking in large plants with improved ma- 
chinery, instead of in the old bakeshops. Trusts 
should be able to sell their goods cheaper than 
under the competitive system as they dispense 
with many of their drummers and other inci- 
dentals of competition. But there is watered 
stock that must earn dividends. 

As an inducement to join the trusts, the 
owners of plants generally get more stock in the 
new corporation than their* plants were worth. 



and How to Win in 1904. 5 

Then the persons who formed the trust, called 
promoters, and the banks that "financed" it by 
advancing money, get their recompense in 
securities, and the public is taxed to pay divi- 
dends on the whole outlay. 

This the people naturally object to. 



How to Treat the Trusts 



WHAT STAETED THE TKUSTS. 

When we know the conditions that lead up 
to the trust movement, we can judge better 
how to treat them. The big spectacular trusts 
are few, but the ordinary trusts of from ten 
to one hundred millions capital now exceed 
three hundred. And I can give my personal 
experience of over thirty years in daily con- 
tact with manufacturers whose plants are now 
mostlv absorbed bv the trusts. I am now re- 
tired from business, but was formerly in busi- 
ness in Isew York City as a plumber and manu- 
facturer of designs and inventions of my own. 
And during all that time I knew and everyone 
in a mechanical line of business knew of agree- 
ments between manufacturers in the same line, 
to keep up prices that were continually being 
made and as continually being broken. Fines 



and How to Win in 1904. 7 

for backsliding from the agreements were im- 
posed by the associations, but all to no purpose. 
The desire to sell and the suspicion that their 
rivals were getting some of their trade away 
from them, always tempted some concern to 
cut prices secretly to make sales. Of course 
that soon got around to the others, and prices 
would tumble down and the merry war would 
begin again. Sometimes the delinquent would 
be summoned before the association and if 
pleading guilty when confronted with the evi- 
dence against him, would pay the fine, promise 
not to offend again and there would be no 
break in the harmony for a while. 

About twenty-five years ago I was highly 
amused by a clock manufacturer's description 
of the circus his association had at a meeting, 
trying to get a member to confess to under- 
cutting, which he fondly imagined was un- 
known to the society. Among the plumbers it 
was a standing joke about the agreements be- 
tween the lead pipe manufacturers. When 



8 How to Treat the Trusts 

they would notify us by mail that the price of 
pipe had advanced we would laugh and say to 
each other that they had made a new combina- 
tion, which we knew would only last for a few 
months. And this was a continuous perform- 
ance for years, until the trust promoters came 
along. 

Another factor that helped to break the 
"agreements between gentlemen/' was the 
personality of the owners or managers of the 
individual plants. Prices being the same 
custom would naturally gravitate to the con- 
cerns that observed the Golden Rule, and away 
from those that had nothing to arbitrate. Then 
during all these years inventors were busy per- 
fecting machinery that enabled one plant to 
manufacture enough for two to dispose of; as 
the elder Vanderbilt said about the railroads, 
"that one trunk line could do the business of 
the four." And still the number of plants kept 
increasing faster than the demand called for. 
Consequently profits kept continually decreas- 



and How to Win in 1904. 9 

ing, until just before the iron pipe manufactur- 
ers formed a trust I bought cast iron pipe 
at a discount of 80$, the list price, that original- 
ly started at 30$; that is I got pipe for twenty 
cents per foot that formerly cost seventy cents 
per foot. 'Then the jobbers, or supply dealers, as 
they are called, got an additional 10$, so that 
when the pig iron, labor, etc., was paid for, 
the profit left to manufacturers was scarcely 
perceptible. 

An acquaintance who could not understand 
how pipe could be sold so cheap, asked a mem- 
ber of a manufacturing firm about it and was 
told that they had been selling pipe at cost for 
several years and tried to make it up in other 
articles in which there was less competition. 

The firm failed afterwards. It was the same 
in brass goods, which, through competition was 
made so thin and of such poor quality, (too 
much zinc or spelter, and too little copper), that 
the Boards of health at last had to specify the 
weight of every article of brass, lead or iron 



io How to Treat the Trusts 

that was used in the sanitary part of plumbing 
of buildings under their supervision; while on 
the water supply fittings, there was one article 
so unfit for use, that I stopped buying it and 
had its equivalent made to order, when I wanted 
any, at three times the cost, and saved money 
in repairs at that. 

When to such competition, bad debts were 
added — for they would take big risks to work 
off stock, it was not surprising to hear of the 
failure of this and that firm. A bookkeeper in 
a New York sales depot told me that of the 
notes they took from customers, they had one 
of them protested every day in the year. And 
this young man through working overtime 
almost every night, owing to insufficient office 
help, broke down mentally and lost his position. 
Several cases of break-down from overwork of 
male and female employes, are within my recol- 
lection. Competition may be the life of trade, 
but it is death to some of the workers. 

And the history of manufacturing concerns, 



and How to Win in 1904. 11 

has been the history of the railroads of the 
country. To earn dividends on their stock, 
(generally well watered,) they resorted to all 
kinds of "agreements," sometimes backed by 
fines to keep up the rates, but three-fourths of 
them have been in the hands of receivers at 
various times, until now through the "com- 
munity of interest" plan they have no competi- 
tion and can therefore fix and maintain rates. 
As George Gould says, "that ends rate cutting, 
secret rebates and other sneaking practices to 
get business." 

It appears that it also begun the advance in 
rates in a quiet way. The community of in- 
terest plan is very simple. The stockholders 
of rival roads purchase stock in each other 
road. After that they are partners instead of 
rivals and no anti-trust or anti-pooling law can 
interfere with them. 

We can imagine how the trust idea took 
shape. 

If one firm or individual owned all the plants 



I a How to Treat the Trusts 

in any line of manuf acture, the firm or indivi- 
dual could fix the prices and terms to custom- 
ers. Then why not unite the different firms 
and individuals into one big firm and accom- 
i plish the same result; mere agreements be- 
tween them failed to keep up prices and conse- 
quently heroic methods must be adopted. I 
knew one concern that employed over a thou- 
sand men that was on the brink of failure when 
the trust promoters made their appearance. I 
was told it got $300,000 in cash in part pay- 
ment for its plant and that saved it. It had 
been running behind for several years through 
competition, and had tried reducing its ex- 
penses by substituting female for male em- 
ployes in its office. Then it discharged its com- 
petent manager for a low priced, and (as ex- 
perience proved) incompetent one, which of 
course made matters worse. 

To my mind the manufacturers were forced 
into combinations through over competition. 

While there has been a constant increase in 



and How to Win in 1904. 13 

the introduction of labor-saving machinery, 
there has been no corresponding reduction in 
the hours of labor; hence production increases 
faster than consumption, and the effort to sell 
this surplus is the cause of over-competition. 
Even the great steel corporation was formed 
to avoid a competitive war between the trusts 
manufacturing specialities in steel. They were 
preparing to invade each others line of manu- 
facture and give the country a Kilkenney cat 
exhibition when Mr. Morgan stepped to the 
front. The Iron Age says: "With one in- 
terest going into the manufacture of tubes 
and sheets, another threatening to invade the 
railmakers' field, a third getting ready to roll 
plates, a fourth preparing to build a large 
structural plant, a fifth about to roll and draw 
wire, there would not have been a single 
important branch which would have escaped 
the most savage competition." 

And Rockefeller testifying before a congres- 
sional investigating committee in 1888, said: 



14 How to Treat the Trusts 

"Finally the capacity for refining oil became 
greater than the market demanded. Each re- 
finery was bound to get rid of its surplus pro- 
duct at any price, and the price of the surplus 
determined the price of the whole. Ruin 
stared them in the face, over-production must 
be curtailed." The oil trust was the outcome. 

But the trust could not have been successful 
without the aid of the banks. Bankers saw a 
perfectly safe and good paying investment by 
"financing" corporations of manufacturers that 
controlled the output of certain lines of staple 
goods throughout the country. They knew 
that the people must have flour and sugar and 
salt and other articles of necessity at almost any 
price, and mortgage bonds on such plants would 
be as good as government bonds while paying 
higher interest. 

Still manufacturers were slow at taking hold 
of the trust idea. At first glance it looked 
rather complicated to succeed well, and might 
be like jumping from the frying pan into the 



and Plow to Win in 1904. 15 

fire. And it was only when they saw the few 
venturous ones succeeding and when they were 
offered more for their plants in stocks or cash 
than they knew them to be worth, that their 
hesitation was overcome. 



1 6 How to Treat the Trusts 



TKUST LABOR. 

Another factor in the trust issue — the factor 
which must be consulted in any proposed treat- 
ment of the trust — is Trust Labor. What part 
did it play in the years leading up to the trust 
movement? Did labor act merely as cogs in 
the machinery of manufacture, or was it ob- 
servant of all that was going on, and how was 
it affected? It certainly shared the ups and 
downs of its employers, and could not therefore 
be ignorant of the situation. An item of fact 
in an English paper of March 30, 1901, covers 
the ground better than any theory. It says: 
"The Board regulating the wages of the Scotch 
manufacturing iron trade has decided, that as 
there was a decline in the selling price in 
January and February equal to a 10$ reduction 
of wages, such a reduction shall be made at 



and How to Win in 1904. 17 

once." The fact is the condition of any con- 
cern cannot be concealed from its employes, 
and it is a duty they owe to themselves and 
their families to find out if possible the financial 
condition of their employers. I was in a sales- 
depot in New York once when the manager told 
several customers in the hearing of the office 
employes and store attendants that the firm 
had lost $10,000 that year. 

It may be taken for granted that labor in the 
mechanic arts knows from actual experience 
what the battle of life means both for labor and 
capital. 

What then would be the rational attitude of 
labor towards the formation into trusts of the 
competing firms that it was working for ? 

Trusts could fix and maintain prices by co- 
operating instead of competing, and could 
therefore make wages reasonably secure. 
Would any consideration of keeping the com- 
petitive system alive be likely to influence their 

employes considering their experience under 
2 



1 8 How to Treat the Trusts 

competition ? True the trusts struck the drum- 
mers hard, and some plants would be closed; 
but the work would have to be done somewhere. 

Every new invention hits some class hard, but 
mechanics and operators have long ceased fight- 
ing the inevitable. Samuel Gompers was asked 
a few years ago, "What the attitude of organized 
labor would be toward the trusts V 7 And 
he replied, "That it would depend on the atti- 
tude of the trusts toward organized labor." 

In plain words, if the trusts showed no dis- 
position to cut wages, to increase the hours of 
labor, or to interfere with the unions, then 
organized labor had no fight with the trusts. 

At present writing the great steel trust strike 
is on, but it is not half as bitterly contested as 
that of the machinists whose bosses are compet- 
ing for business, but are combined to fight 
against shorter hours to their workmen. And 
every strike only strengthens labor's desire for 
public ownership as its only hope for justice. 
Trust capital and competitive capital benefit by 



and How to Win in 1904. 19 

labor-saving machinery, but wont shorten the 
hours of labor. Public opinion, on the con- 
trary, would cut down the hours as machinery 
saved labor. The unemployed is the weapon 
that is used against labor in the strike and the 
lock-out. 

The democratic platform sympathized with 
the drummers and other labor rendered super- 
fluous by the trusts, but I notice that among 
the bankers and the magnates who gathered 
at the ISTew York republican headquarters on 
the night of election, to welcome the news of 
McKinley's election, were J. H. Lichman, G. 
M. W. of the K. of L. and J. L. Shipherd, presi- 
dent of the Commercial Travelers' Association. 

Trusts have advanced prices, but the people 
have the ballots, and if 14,000,000 voters allow 
a few thousand trust magnates to rob them, 
they deserve to be robbed and scourged until 
they get a little fire into 'their blood. What 
did the Almighty give us brains for? 

The fact that labor shared in the struggles 



20 How to Treat the Trusts 

of its employers under competition makes it un- 
reasonable to expect it to throw itself into the 
breach to restore competition. But an ounce 
of fact is worth a ton of theory. An item from 
the Philadelphia, Pa., Times, stating that the 
window glass workers' union owns a "nice, large 
block" of the trusts' stock is a fairly conclusive 
argument against any desire of the workers to 
hurt that particular trust. 

The Times says: "President Simon Burns, 
of the Window Glass Workers' association and 
general master workman of the K. of L., is 
also a director in the Window Glass company, 
(the trust) his organization owning a nice, large 
block of the trusts' stock." 

Organized labor in general wants to see the 
trusts and railroads owned by the government, 
and for that reason can be counted on to help 
any movement tending in that direction, but 
opposing any movement looking backward. 
They know all about the past and are not in 
love with it. In fact the worst complication 



and How to Win in 1904. 21 

may come from the opposite direction. The 
proposition of Manager Schwab of the steel 
corporation to give the workmen stock at a 
low figure, if carried out and followed up by all 
the trusts, would make it much harder to make 
them public instead of private monopolies. The 
Representative/ of Minneapolis, Minn., says: 
"Organized capital will enter into a partnership 
with organized labor to delay public ownership 
and prolong the unequal and unjust distribu- 
tion of wealth. This trust of organized capital 
and organized labor is destined to be the most 
dangerous* trust of all, because it divides the 
labor vote." The Representative apparently 
does nofr rely much on trust labor to smash the 
trusts. 



22 How to Treat the Trusts 



BACK AGAIN. 

This brings us back to the Journal's assertion 
that "it was the trust issue that really cut" at 
the election of 1900. For it was plain that the 
democratic trust plank meant the destruction 
of the trusts. It says: "We pledge the demo- 
cratic party to unceasing warfare in nation, 
state and city against private monopoly in every 
form." No thing could be plainer. And we 
can imagine that the trust magnates and their 
friends were not slow to make the most of that 
threat, and to impress upon the minds of their 
employes the catastrophe that would engulf 
them all should. Bryan be elected. In New 
York state great posters in flaming colors were 
placarded all over the state, predicting the de- 
struction of the nation's business, and all sorts 
of disasters that woud happen if Bryan should 



and How to Win in 1904. 23 

be successful. The silver question frightened 
no one at the election of 1900, for the eastern 
states increased their democratic vote — New 
York by 90,000, and it only required 147,000 
votes in !STew York, 100,000 in Illinois and 50,- 
000 in Ohio to elect Bryan. And those are the 
states where trusts and trust workers are most 
in evidence. With others I foresaw the result, 
although hoping that anti-imperialism would 
pull Bryan through, and long before the con- 
vention met, I wrote a trust plank, proposing 
a receiver to run the trusts, which was indorsed 
by Mayor Jones of Toledo, and forwarded by 
him to the leading delegate from Ohio to the 
convention. But the platform committee ap- 
pears to have regarded trusts as boils or car- 
buncles on the body politic which only required 
lancing to shrink and shrivel away. The trusts 
don't appear to be doing much shrinking just 
at present. 

Even the wholesale grocers and dry goods 
houses are combining, and if the combinations 



24 How to Treat the Trusts 

continue to increase there will certainly be 600 
of them in 1904. 

They may be destroyed in the meantime, but 
experience is contrary to that supposition. The 
Standard Oil trust has been in operation for 
over twenty years, and is now able to pay a 
yearly dividend of over forty millions a year 
on the original capital of ninety millions. And 
as every trust is practically a little czar in its 
own domain or specialty, with power to tax the 
people whatever it pleases for what they buy 
from it, failures should be the exception, not 
the rule. 

Assuming that the trusts employ 5,000 men- 
each on an average — and some of them employ 
over 50,000, and that there will be 600 trusts 
in 1904, there would be 3,000,000 employes 
opposed to any policy threatening their employ- 
ment. Add to that the members financially in- 
terested in them, and it would make the pros- 
pects for the election of a party committed to 
their destruction very meagre indeed. More 



and How to Win in 1904. 25 

especially as the trust voters hold the balance of 
power in states where a dozen votes more or 
less might decide from twenty to thirty-nine 
electoral votes. 

Even the women and children employed by 
the trusts have relatives who would oppose any 
destructive policy aimed against them. 



26 How to Treat the Trusts 



THE BISCUIT TKITST. 

In the summer of 1899, I passed a great 
building some ten stories high and occupying 
three sides of a square in ISTew York City. It 
inclosed a court yard in which were a large 
number of delivery wagons, like postal wagons. 
It was evidently built for some special manu- 
facture. I was told that it was the biscuit 
trust and that another much larger factory was 
being built in the west. That set me to think- 
ing. I assumed that there were hundreds of 
girls and children working there in addition to 
the men employed. And I wondered how the 
girls, especially, would take it when told that 
they would have to leave the fine factory, where 
they had plenty of light and fresh air, with the 
latest sanitary improvements required by the 
board of health in toilet and lavatories, warm in 



and How to Win in 1904. 27 

winter and cool in summer, and go back to the 
cellars and rookeries, (if tliey still existed), 
where the individual concerns formerly made 
their crackers? 

"Why should we have to leave ?" "Because 
if the democrats win they will smash the 
trusts." "And how about the republicans?" 
"Oh, they are all right, there wont be any 
trouble if they get in." ^Naturally talks like 
this would be told to their relatives and friends, 
and it may be assumed that for every person 
working for a trust there will be one voter that 
will oppose trust smashing. 



28 How to Treat the Trusts 



OPPOSED TO THE DEMOCEATIC TEUST 
PLANK. 

Again it appears that a great number who 
supported Bryan in 1900, were not in sympathy 
with the party's trust plank. In May, 1901, 
five months after the election the New York 
Journal, which with the Chicago American and 
San Erancisco Examiner, voices the sentiment 
of hundreds of thousands of Bryan supporters 
says: "The trusts organize admirably the 
great industries and prepare the day when all 
of these industries will be owned by the gov- 
ernment — that is to say, by the people them- 
selves. The trusts eliminate competition, 
which is a stupid, out-of-date form of barbar- 
ism, leading to cheating, thievery and adultera- 
tion." 

There is no mistaking this language, and 



and How to Win in 1904. 29 

that it expresses the voice of its readers, for the 
daily press does not lead, it reflects public 
opinion. 

And it goes without saying that men who 
believe that -trusts lead to public ownership, (as 
many republican papers admit,) and that com- 
petition leads to "cheating, thievery and 
adulteration," will not vote to restore competi- 
tion at the election of 1904. It was anti-im- 
perialism that upheld the democratic vote in 
1900. 



30 How to Treat the Trusts 



THE WAT OUT. 

For the reasons above stated it would be next 
to impossible for the democrats to succeed in 
1904 in the ordinary way. For they cannot 
reverse their policy of "unceasing warfare" 
against the trusts, without being called trim- 
mers for office and demagogues, and that would 
knock them out. "What do I mean by the 
ordinary way ?" I mean that if they construct 
their platform in the usual way, proposing war- 
fare on the trusts, free trade on trust material, 
warfare on the tariff, etc., that they will go 
down with a crash. But if they will adopt 
Pingree's motto of giving the people what they 
want, they will win hands down. 

How? Simply by making but one "de- 
mand" — direct legislation, in their platform, 



and How to Win in 1904. 31 

the rest of the platform to be suggestions for 
solving the great questions of the day by a 
referendum vote, after the people have secured 
that right. 

This commits the party to nothing except to 
give the people a chance to get what they want, 
and also that the democratic party is willing 
that the people should rule, practically as well as 
theoreticallv. 

And the party that gives us a "government 
by the people" without any if s or buts, will have 
no cause for regret. The Swiss people hardly 
ever change their representatives, but re-elect 
them term after term, although they sometimes 
veto their acts. 

From the patroits standpoint, see what di- 
rect legislation would accomplish: It would 
make the republic immortal; no ambitious con- 
spirator could destroy it as others have been 
destroyed; peace or war, and the honor of the 
nation would be in the hands of the people 



32 How to Treat the Trusts 

"under all conditions, and the great economic 
changes that will lead to a higher civilization 
would develop peacefully. 

That the people want the referendum will 
hardly be disputed. Jefferson tried to get it 
into the Virginia constitution, and Lincoln 
wanted to settle the civil war by a direct vote 
of the people, north and south. Professor Par- 
sons says: "Early in the war Lincoln made an 
effort to secure an arrangement that would 
terminate hostilities and settle the questions of 
union or disunion and slavery or no slavery by 
means of a direct vote of the whole people. 
Gentlemen were sent to talk with the president 
and secretary of the confederacy to see if an 
agreement could be made to go to the people 
with two propositions." But President Davis 
would not consent. Lincoln knew how to settle 
the great questions of the day. And Col. Bryan 
in explaining what democracy means says: 
"Democracy is not merely a party name. 
Democracy has a meaning. Democracy means 



and How to Win in 1904. 33 

a government in which the people rule, and that 
is all we ask for. We are willing to submit 
any question that concerns the people of this 
country to the people themselves." And he 
believes that few outside of the aristrocratic 
element of the nation will oppose it. He says: 
"It will not be opposed by any democrat who 
indorses the declaration of Jefferson, that the 
people are capable of self government, nor will 
it be opposed by any republican who holds to 
Lincoln's idea that this should be a government 
of the people, by the people and for the 
people." 

Samuel Gompers, President of the American 
Federation of Labor, representing the workers 
of the country, many of whom are republicans, 
on account of the tariff, says: "All lovers of 
the human family, all who earnestly strive for 
political reform, economic justice and social 
enfranchisement, must range themselves on the 
side of organized labor in this demand for direct 
legislation." Organized labor is solid for the 



34 How to Treat the Trusts 

referendum and the Federation of Labor has 
proved its advantages by using it for years in 
the government of its own organization. And 
the party that is " willing to submit any ques- 
tion that concerns the people of this country 
to the people themselves/' may be reasonably 
assured of its support: PKOVIDED, that the 
party does not mix in with the demand for the 
referendum other planks that labor cannot sup- 
port. For this plan does not ask the voter to 
indorse ten or twenty planks that he dislikes 
in a platform, when he really approves of but 
one or two. Kor does it drive a voter into sup- 
porting a party he dislikes, because of one dis- 
tasteful, or he might think, ruinous plank, in 
the platform of the party he likes. 

As Prof. Lecky, English member of parlia- 
ment, says: "The referendum would have the 
immense advantage of disentangling issues, 
separating one great question from the many 
minor questions with which it may be mixed. 
Confused or blended issues are among the 



and How to Win in 1904. 35 

greatest political dangers of our time." The 
professor is correct, not only is our present 
system liable to get the wrong party into power, 
but it is also "among the greatest political dan- 
gers of our time." 

Fortunately the- democrats had the courage 
to put direct legislation into their platform in 
1900, and it would be poetic justice if the party 
that had the courage to indorse it then, should 
be carried into power to see that it was secured. 
Lincoln said to a friend in politics, "Keep close 
to the people for they will never deceive you." 



36 How to Treat the Trusts 



AS TO THE PLATFOKM.' 

After a suitable preamble, pointing out some 
of the drawbacks to getting the real public 
opinion on the important questions of the day by 
the present methods, and the advantages of the 
direct vote of the people to decide such ques- 
tions, the .platform, might say: 

"We therefore propose to secure Direct 
Legislation first, and then ref er important ques- 
tions, such as imperialism, the trusts, tariff and 
money questions to a referendum vote by the 
people. " 

At present we simply suggest certain plans 
for solving such questions. Other parties can 
do the same, and any question can be brought 
before congress for debate and be submitted to 
a referendum vote when a percentage of the 
representatives or citizens petition for it. 



and How to Win in 1904. 37 

On the imperial question we would ask a vote 
on whether we shall keep the Philippine islands, 
etc., * * or prepare their people for early 
independence under American Protection, (as 
called for in Massachusetts platform). 

To solve the trust question we suggest two 
plans: One (something like that of the plat- 
form of 1900). The other the Guarantee 
Plan, which proposes a Secretary of trusts to 
run the trusts as a receiver runs bankrupt rail- 
roads and other corporations without cost to 
*the government. He would fix the prices to 
consumers by allowing fair wages for a fair 
day's work to labor, and a fair interest to capital 
for actual investments. If the people want 
public ownership to follow, prices can be fixed 
to allow for a sinking fund to purchase the 
plants gradually. 

To settle the tariff question w r e propose two 
plans — a tariff for revenue only, or, to fix the 
tariff rates by allowing labor fair wages for a 



38 How to Treat the Trusts 

fair day's work, to be enforced by the govern- 
ment, and capital a fair interest on its plant. 

On the money question, the great output of 
the gold mines and of exports during the last 
few years proves the quantitative theory of the 
democratic party to be correct, and shows that 
we can have continuous prosperity if we- keep 
up a sufficient circulation. 

Money changers benefit by a scanty circula- 
tion, but a referendum, vote can offset their 
power over Congress. 

Among the issues we favor and on which 
there is very little difference of opinion* among 
the people are: 

The Xicaraguan canal to be built and operat- 
ed by the government. 

Improvement of arid lands. 

Chinese exclusion. 

Liberal pensions ta the soldiers and sailors 
entitled to them. 

A sufficient navy equal in equipment to the 
best. 



and How to Win in 1904. 39 

We are opposed to: 
Militarism. 

To a large standing army. 

To government by injunction, etc. 

Of course the issues may be more elaborate 
in detail, but the main idea of the referendum 
is what would count with the voters. If the 
principle involved and the details are ably pre- 
sented, it would help the cause. 



40 How to Treat the Trusts 



SOME KEMAKKS. 

"Would it not be a pretty big contract for 
one man to run all the trusts?" No. Every 
corporation has its manager, who knows every 
detail connected with its specialty, and it would 
only be necessary for the secretary's depart- 
ment to keep in touch with the manager's office. 
The postoffice departments runs 70,000 post- 
offices, and the number of trusts will not be 
likely to exceed 1,000. In fact the head of a 
department does scarcely anything, everything 
being done by subordinates. 

A sample order from the postoffice depart- 
ment to a postmaster in Kansas shows how the 
work is done: 

Postmaster, Girard, Kansas: 

Chance purchasers of second-class matter not 



and How to Win in 1904. 41 

mailable at pound rates by publishers. Copies 
to subscribers for a series of issues and equal 
number of sample copies only are entitled to 
pound rates. This applies to the Appeal to 
Reason. 

EDWEf C. MADDEX, 

Third Assistant P. M. 
Washington, D. C. 

There is no indication in this order that the 
Postmaster General ever heard anything about 
it. 

And Carnegie says that one man will soon fix 
all the railroad rates of the country. 

Running the trusts or running the railroads 
of the country is no difficult problem today. 

It is merely a matter of business organization. 

And the magnates are making it easier every 
day. They are building better than they know. 

As to getting trust prices down — every con- 
cern knows the actual cost of every article it 
makes, and if it can get its raw materials 



42 How to Treat s the Trusts 

cheaper it can sell its products cheaper. 
Squeeze the profitsv on water out of the raw 
material through all grades of manufacture, 
and the result would surprise the people. And 
agreeable surprise would be followed by in- 
creased consumption and greater opportunities 
for labor. 

Officers of the Standard Oil company have 
testified that a gallon of refined oil costs less 
than three cents. 

It is retailed here in Florida for twenty 
cents, or five gallons for ninety cents. And the 
big profits don't go to the retailer either. 
Surely a certain amount of the great profits of 
the oil trust could be put away for a sinking 
fund for public ownership, and still allow for 
a fair interest to the capital invested, and better 
wages and shorter hours for the labor employed 
than at present. 

The New York Tribune, a strong pillar of 
republican policies, says that in New Zealand 
where the railroads are not only owned by the 



and How to Win in 1904. 43 

state, but are nearly all built by the state, the 
wages of the employes average 30$ higher than 
those paid on the railways of the United States. 
You can ride thirty miles there for ten cents. 



44 How to Treat the Trus 



THE MORAL RIGHT. 

As to our moral right to take means to secure 
moderate prices, every state has laws to prevent 
usurers from collecting more than a certain rate 
of interest on loans, otherwise the money 
changers would have owned the earth long ago 
and the trusts will soon do so unless the people 
wake up. Public ownership would be an ex- 
tension of the laws of Eminent Domain, where- 
by a railroad can take your property for its own 
use against your will, at an appraised valuation. 
The law recognizing that the general welfare 
takes precedence over private interests. 

It may be said, it will be said, that the 
Guarantee Plan would lead to Socialism. 

As to that, it will be found that the people 
who know enough to vote for direct legislation, 
will be perfectly able to take care of them- 
selves. 



and How to Win in 1904. 45 



NOT ALONE IN PLAN. 

I am not alone in advocating a referendum 
vote to settle the trust and other great ques- 
tions, or in thinking that direct legislation is 
the only salvation for the democrats in 1904. 
The Direct Legislation League, of Michigan, 
which covers the state pretty thoroughly with 
its literature, prints the following on the back 
of one of its tracts: 



46 How to Treat the Trusts 



"TBUSTS. 

When all is said — 

All propositions discussed — 

WHAT :ake you going to do 

ABOUT IT? 

Trusts can and will control 'Boards, Com- 
missioners, Legislatures and Courts. 

The only thing they cannot control is 
THE PEOPLE themselves. 

Only by DIBECT LEGISLATION" 
can the people .control the trusts." 

The tract is taken from the address of Dr. 
George H. Sherman, of Detroit, Mich., de- 
livered before the National Anti-Trust Confer- 
ence, Chicago, February 12, 1900. He says: 

"In dealing with this problem of the trusts, 
we areireally dealing with the great 'social prob- 



and How to Win in 1904. 47 

lem, imperatively demanding to be solved. 
Who is to solve it ? Is it to be solved by the peo- 
ple in its own interest, or by the owners of the 
trusts in their's ? Shall we, as a people, retrace 
our steps in civilization, or advance ? I believe 
in the people; I believe that majority rule is 
the only just rule, because what the majority 
wants suits the greatest number. 

"The pressing need of the hour is a suitable 
vehicle by means of which the will of the people 
can make itself manifest. Direct Legislation 
would be that vehicle. I draw attention to the 
fact that the people are the only power able to 
solve this problem correctly. That every other 
means, whether by legislative, judiciary or 
executive efforts, must fail, because the 
tremendous power to be controlled will inevita- 
bly control the controller."' 



4-8 How to Treat the Trusts 



IN A BAD PLIGHT. 

A year later. Dr. Sherman, representing the 
Executive Committee of the National Direct 
Legislation League, says: 

"The democratic party is certainly in a bad 
plight for a political issue if it does not seize 
the opportunity and push direct legislation to 
the front. 

"It is the only issue that will keep all the 
factions together and prevent third party 
organizations. 

"With D. L. as the only issue, the demo- 
cratic party can win, but with nothing else." 

And that the referendum issue in the cam- 
paign of 1900 was beneficial to the party, with 
the workingmen strongly in favor of it, is 
proved by Mr. S. D. Williams, of Battle Creek, 
Mich., who ran for congress in his district. He 



and How to Win in 1904. 49 

says: "I ran two hundred ahead of my ticket 
in this city. I attribute this to the strong 
sentiment of the workingmen of this city toward 
direct legislation. My own attitude on that 
question is so well known that many working- 
men rendered me substantial aid on account of 
it." Xot only voting but giving "substantial 
aid/' would also be the record of labor in 1904, 
if the democratic leaders prove themselves equal 

to the occasion, 
4 



50 How to Treat the Trusts 



A FEW OPESTCXNTS. 

The Boston Daily Traveler says: "The idea 
is steadily gaining ground that the competitive 
system is wrong, and its evils have principally 
been borne by labor. As prices were de- 
moralized, labor was oppressed.'' (The war tax 
on cigarettes was paid by reducing the wages 
of the cigarette girls.) "So far, the benefits 
secured by co-operation and consolidation have 
been grabbed by capital. And therefore, the 
next great step is close at hand. In some way 
these enormous savings by consolidation must 
be distributed among the people and not go 
into hands of the few men who manipulate 
the formation of these trusts. In other words, 
let the people control the trusts instead of the 
trust controlling the people." 



and How to Win in 1904. 51 



CLERGYMEN'S OPINIONS. 

Dr. George C. Loriiner, of Boston, formerly 
of Immanuel Baptist Church, Chicago, in a 
sermon said: 

"I want tonight to recommend three great 
principles — first, popular ownership of com- 
mercial trusts; second, industrial co-operation, 
and third, popular control of public utilities. 
In my younger days I was dead set against 
municipal ownership, but I can close my eyes 
no longer. The city should own and control its 
streets. Some day you will own all public 
franchises. It is in the air. It is in the blood 
of the nation/' 

The Rev. Josiah Strong warns us to beware 
of the demagogues. He says: "It is useless 
to plead that we are democratic and to plead the 
leveling character of our institutions. There is 



52 How to Treat the Trusts 

among us an aristocracy of recognized power, 
and 'that aristocracy is one of wealth." 

And he might have added that the aristocracy 
of wealth has ruled the country in the interests 
of wealth for the last forty years, and it will 
always be so as long as the people are deprived 
of their right to supervise and control the public 
business. Turning one set of rulers, (as they 
are called,) out of office and putting another 
set in at stated intervals is no remedy. No 
private firm could exist that had no control over 
its help except to hire them for two or more 
years. 

A fair example of the workings of our pres- 
ent system was lately shown in Pennsylvania, 
where the 6$ to 8fc difference between the tariffs 
of the two great parties has given the republi- 
cans complete control of the state and city 
governments, and also of those supposed bul- 
warks of our rights, the courts. 

The New York Journal says: 

"The late raid on the streets of Philadelphia 



and How to Win in 1904. 53 

is only one of a series of robberies that has left 
that city hardly anything to steal. A few 
years ago the municipality operated its own gas 
works. The gang turned them over to a pri- 
vate corporation. The People's Bank was 
looted and wrecked. Later, the Keystone Tele- 
phone company received a franchise worth 
millions, to sell or give away as it chose, with 
no return to the city. About the same time 
$15,000,000 was voted for a water filtration 
plant, to be expended at the discretion of the 
mayor, with no check upon the outlay. The 
people of Philadelphia expect that all the money 
will be spent, but few of them hope to live to 
drink any filtered water. 

"In JSTew York, where one party is in control 
of the metropolis and the other of the state 
government, the people find some protection in 
playing off one set of politicians against the 
other. But in Pennsylvania the same gang is 
in power at Philadelphia and at Harrisburg. 
The governor, the legislature and the courts of 



54 How to Treat the Trusts 

the state ; the mayor, the councils and the courts 
of the citv ; the United States senators and most 
of the representatives in congress are parts of a 
single band of highwaymen. The governor and 
senate have just given charge of the banks of 
the state to a man whose record is described as 
that of "a faithless public servant, removed 
from the office of secretary of the common- 
wealth for violation of his oath; as the wrecker 
of the State Insurance company and beneficiary 
of an embezzlement of its funds; as the signer 
of false statements to the insurance depart- 
ment; as a party to fraudulent transactions with 
the People's bank; as a financial crook and a 
rascal." 

But the most insidious enemy of republics 
is the flatterer. He fills the minds of the flats 
— a man who loses his head through flattery is 
certainly a flat — with boasts of the grandeur 
and wealth of the country, and the magnificent 
prospects before them and their children — to- 



and How to Win .in 1904. 55 

day earning small wages, perhaps, tomorrow a 
national senator or possibly the president of the 
republic. 

Carlisle and Fronde, the English historians, 
say that republics must fail; why? because the 
people will always elect as their .ruler the man 
who knows best how to flatter them, and the 
flatterer is never a statesman. 

The trip of the administration to California 
suggests to Mr. Ambrose Bierce in the Xew 
York Journal, in imaginary conversation that 
hits off both sides to perfection: 

"First American Sovereign — Hurrah! Hoo- 
ray ! -Hurroo ! 

•Second American Sovereign — What's the 

matter with vou \ 

1/ 

F. A. S. — What's the matter with me? 
What's the matter with all of us? Don't you 
see the president's train ? Don't you hear him 
speaking from the rear platform? 

S. A. S. — What's to prevent ! 



56 How to Treat the Trusts 

F. A. S. — iSTothing could prevent — not all 
tlie crowned heads of Europe, nor all the lick- 
spittle courtiers and servile subjects! 

S. A. S.; — Ko, nbthin — just nothing at all — 
excepting personal self-respect and a decent 
sense of the dignity of American citizenship. 

F. A. S — What! You think it base and 
undignified to pay honor to the president's 
great office ? 

S. A. S. — It is easy to call it "honoring his 
great office. " I believe we commonly do give 
the name of some virtue to our besetting vice. 
I observe that the president, too, honors our 
own great office by the most sickening flattery 
of the people every time he opens his mouth. 
His reasons are better than ours, for we really 
outrank him; his great office is of our own 
making and bestowal. 

F. A. S. — Sir, you have no right to use sucH 
language of the ruler of the nation ! 

S. A. S. — It is "ruler" when you want an 
excuse to grovel; in your more austere moods 



and How to Win in 1904. 57 

it is "servant of the people" — and that is his 
own name for the thing that he has the distinc- 
tion to be. I don't cheer my butler, nor throw 
flowers at my coachman, nor crush the hand 
of my cook." 

"Getting some protection" by "playing one 
set of politicians against the other/' is a most 
humiliating admission of the failure of our 
present system. 

The people must set the pace for the party 
that is somewhat in sympathy with 'them, as 
they did in 1896, if they would secure that 
equal and exact justice between man and man, 
which is the most beautiful conception that can 
possess the human mind. 

July 4, 1901. 

Following is a list of trusts, which would 
look as if everything in the way of manu- 
facture had been covered in, but they keep 
on increasing. Sometimes, as in the case of the 
Billion Dollar trust and the tobacco interests, 
combining several plants that formerly were in 



58 How to Treat the Trusts 

trusts of their own specialties. And the future 
tendency will be in that direction. 

The trust magnates have no fear of destruc- 
tive legislation, but admit, confidentially, that 
public ownership, is the logical outcome. 

And they prefer that risk rather than the 
risks of competition. Some of the richest New 
Yorkers now have their daughters attend a 
school there which teaches the latest economic 
theories, thus preparing them for the inevitable. 

Acetelyne— Union Carbide Co. . . $6,000,000 

Acme Process Co 3,000,000 

Acme Process Patent Co 2,000,000 

Acme Storage Battery and 

Mfg. Co... 5,000,000 

Air— International Air Power Co. 25,000,000 
Continental Compressed A. P. 

Co 15,000,000 

Liquid Air Refrigeration and 

P. Co 10,000,000 

Eight Compressed Air Co. . .100,000,000 

Alcohol 5,000,000 

Manhattan Spirit Co .... , _.., ... 5,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 59 

Slkali— 'American Alkali Co $30,000,000 

Asphalt 3,140,000 

Asphalt Company of America «30,000,000 

Barber Asphalt Co 

American Railway Co 25,000,000 

American Power & Transportation 

Co 

American Switch Co 11,000,000 

American Sterilized Air Co 5,000,000 

Alabama Consolidated Coal and 

Iron 

Automobile Co. of New York 200,000,000 

Bay State Gas Co 100,000,000 

Buffalo City Gas Co 7,000,000 

Baking Powder— Royal 20,000,000 

Barbed Wire 10,000,000 

Beef— Swift & Co 15,000,000 

Consolidated Packing Co 5,000;000 

Northwestern Beef Co 13,600;000 

Dressed Beef & Provision 

Companies 102,000,000 

Brass Founder's Machine Co 6,000,000 

Brakes— New YortAir Brake Co. 10,000,000 

Brass—American Brass Co 20,000,000 

Brewers — Boston Breweries' Co. . 11,500,000 



60 How to Treat ti-3 Trusts 

Brewers — Continued : 

Pittsburg Brewing Co $20,000,000 

Chicago and Milwaukee 60,000,000 

American Malting Co 26,050,000 

New York Combination 50,000,000 

Brick— American Brick Co 10,000,000 

Bridge Builders 40,000,000 

Bronze and Brass Combination. . . . 5,200,000 

Bicycles— American Bicycle Co . . 80,000,000 

Bleachery 10,000,000 

Books — American Book Co 5,000,000 

United States Book Co 3,250,000 

Boilers — Boiler Makers' Union 

(over 150 concerns) 35,000,000 

Bolts — American Bolt & Nut Co. . 10,000,000 

Boats— Great Lakes Towing Co. . 4,000,000 

Electric Boat Co 10,000,000 

Borax — Pacific Coast Borax Co. . 2,500,000 

Consolidated Borax Co 12,250,000 

Broom Mfgrs.' Association 10,000,000 

Burial Cases — National Casket Co . 10,000,000 

Western Combination 28,000,000 

Eastern Burial Co 4,000,000 

Brushes— Obio Co. . 2,000,000 

•Carbon — National Carbon Co 10,000,000 

Candle, Cleveland ., 3,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 61 

Cars — American Car & Foundry 

Co $60,000,000 

Pressed Steel Car Co 25,000,000 

Consolidated Steel Car Co.. 18,000,000 
Cartridges — Ammunition Mfgrs.' 

Association 4,000,000 

Ammunition Ordnance Co. . . 2,500,000 

Carpets — National Carpet Co 50,000,000 

Capsules — Compressed Air Capsule 

Co 13,500,000 

Chain— Union Steel & Chain Co. . 60,000,000 

Chain Mfgrs.' Association. . . 3,000,000 

Caramels — American Caramel Co. 5,000,000 

Carriages — General Carriage Co. . 20,000,000 

Central Foundry Co 14,000,000 

Century Development Co 10,000,000 

Cereals — Hecker, Jones, Jewell 

Milling Co 33,000,000 

Cellulose— Marsden Co 32,672,000 

Celluloid Co 8,000,000 

Chewing Gum American Chicle Co. 9,000,000 
Chemicals — Pharmaceutical Mfg. 

Co 50,000,000 

Cement— Continental Cement Co. 10,000,000 

International Cement Co 25,000,000 



6 2 How to Treat the Trusts 

Chairs— Manufacturing Co $20,000,000 

Coal— Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. . 20,000,000 
Montana Coal & Coke Co. . . 5,000,000 
Mississippi Valley Coal & Coke 

Co 80,000,000 

Heading Coal Co 150,000,000 

Virginia & Tennessee Coal Co. 15,000,000 

Soft Coal Combination 64,000,000 

Tennessee Iron & E. E. Co. . 21,000,000 

Pittsburg. Co 11,000,000 

J. P. Morgan Combination. ..889,000,000 

Copper — International Copper Co.400,000,000 
Anaconda Copper Mining Co. 30,000,000 
Amalgamated Copper Co ... . 100,000,000 

Ingots Mfg. Co 20,000,000 

Syndicate 50,000,000 

Cotton Baling — American Cotton 

Baling Co 

Duck 10,000,000 

Yarn 80,000,000 

Cordage 35,000,000 

Crackers — Continental Cracker Co. 10,000,000 
U. S. Biscuit Co 55,000,000 

Crockery — American Pottery Co. . 27,000,000 

Dyewoods — U. S. Dyewood & Ex- 
tract Co , 10,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 63 



Drugs — National Association of 

Wholesale Druggists $25,000,000 

Edison Portland Cement Co 11,000,000 

Electric Storage Battery Co 18,000,000 

Electric Ship Co 10,000,000 

Electric Light & Power Co 50,000,000 

Electric Light, Heat & Power Co. 25,000,000 
Electric Company of America... 25,000,000 
Electricit y — Columbia Electric 

Lighting and Power Co 10,000,000 

American Heating Co 10,000,000 

General Electric Co 54,000,000 

National Electric Co 25,000,000 

Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. 

Co. of New Jersey 20,000,000 

Columbia Electric Car Light- 
ing & Brake Co 10,000,000 

Electrical Supply Co 10,000,000 

Electrotypers of New York 5,000,000 

Elevators— Otis Elevator Co 10,000,000 

Western Elevator Association 

(grain) 15,000,000 

Envelopes — The IT. S. Envelope 

Co 5,000,000 

Engines— Steam 25,000,000 



64 How to Treat the Trusts 

Fertilizer — American Agricultural 

Co. $40,000,000 

Virginia & Carolina Chemical 

Co. N 10,000,000 

Fish— A. Booth & Co., (48 fish and 

oyster plants) 5,500,000 

Pacific American Fisheries. . . 5,000,000 

American Fisheries Co 10,000,000 

Fire Clay & Sewer Pipe Corpora- 
tion 20,000,000 

Flour— U. S. Flour Mill Co 75,000,000 

Fruit— Boston Trust Co 10,000,000 

IT. S. Fruit Co 20,000,000 

Furniture — American School Fur- 
niture Co 12,000,000 

Gas— New Amsterdam Gas Co.. 23,000,000 
Consolidated Gas Co. of New 

York 36,000,000 

Newark Consolidated Gas Co. 6,000,000 

Brooklyn Union Gas Co 15,000,000 

Central Union Gas Co 24,000,000 

Philadelphia National Gas Co. 12,000,000 
People's Gas Light Co. of 

Chicago 30,000,000 

People's" Gas & Coke Co. . . . 8,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 65 

Gas — Continued: 

Essex County Gas Co $50,000,000 

Gas Fixtures — American Gas Fix- 
ture Co 15,000,000 

Glass — American Window Glass 

Co 17,000,000 

Eastern Glass Co 12,000,000 

Flint 8,000,000 

Pittsburg Glass Co 10,000,000 

U. S. Glass Co 4,000,000 

Gloves 20,000,000 

Glucose— Sugar Refining Co 37,000,000 

U. S. Glucose Co 5,000,000 

Glue— IT. S. Glue Co 35,000,000 

Granite ware, (four plants) 20,000,000 

Havana Construction Co 20,000,000 

Havana Electric Railway Co 10,000,000 

Harrows— National Harrow Co. . . 2,000,000 
Hard Rubber — American Hard 

Rubber Co 2,500,000 

Harvesters— Corn 50,000,000 

Helvitin Copper Co 5,000,000 

Horse Shoes 7,000,000 

Ice— American Ice Co 90,000,000 

Consolidated Ice Co 10,000,000 

Indigo — Egyptian Compressed Co. 15,000,000 
5 



66 How to Treat the Trusts 

International Car Wheel Co $15,000,000 

Ink— Printing Ink Co 20,000,000 

Insurance — NewEnglandlnsurance 

Exchange (84 companies) . . 58,000,000 

Jewelry Combination 25,000,000 

Knit Goods Co 20,000,000 

Lamp Chimney Corporation 2,000,000 

Lasts — American Last Co 3,500,000 

Lead— National Lead Co 29,000,000 

Leather — American Hide & Leather 

Co 60,000,000 

Patent Leather Trust 25,000,000 

U. S. Leather Co 125,000,000 

Life Preservers — Anderson Safe 

Float Co 15,000,000 

Light — Kern Incandescent Gas 

Light Co 12,000,000 

United Lighting & Heating 

Co 12,000,000 

National Light & Power Co. 15,000,000 
Pennsylvania Manufacturing 

Light & Power Co 15,000,000 

Street Lighting Co 12,000,000 

Lumber — Carriers' Association ... 6,000,000 

Trust 40,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 67 

Lumber — Con t in ucd : 

Central Lumber Co. of Cali- 
fornia $70,000,000 

North Carolina Association.. 20,000,000 

Weyerhauser Syndicate 13,000,000 

Malt— American Malting Co 26,000,000 

Marble— U. S. Marble Trust 20,000,000 

Manufactured Rubber Co 6,000,000 

Matches— Diamond Match Co 15,000,000 

Mattress Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion 21,000,000 

Mexican Coal & Coke Co 5,000,000 

Mexican Land Co 6,000,000 

Milk— Chicago Co 10,000,000 

Condensed Milk Co 15,000,000 

New England Dairy Co 30,000,000' 

Borden's Condensed Milk Co. 20,000,000 
New York & New Jersey Co. 15,000,000 
Mirrors — Mirror Manufacturers' 
National Tin Plate & Stabed 

Ware Co 20,000,000 

New York Vehicle Transportation 

Co 25,000,000 

Needles — International Needle Co. 3,000,000 

New England Cotton Yarn 11,000,000 

Niles-Bement Powder Co 8,000,000 



rvA * * 



68 How to Treat the Trusts 

North Star Mines-Co $5,000,000 

Oil — American Cotton Oil Co 34,000,000 

Cotton Seed Co 6,500,000 

National Linseed Oil Co 33,000,000 

New Jersey Standard Oil Co . 10,000,000 

Standard Oil Co 97,000,000 

Oyster Trust 5,000,000 

Pipe— American Sewer Pipe Co. . 25,000,000 

Federal Sewer Pipe Co 23,000,000 

• International Paper Co 55,000,000 

Tissue 10,000,000 

National Wall Paper Co 35,000,000 

Union Paper Co 3,000,000 

Union Bag & Paper Co 27,000,000 

Perfume Association 25,000,000 

Peanuts 5,000,000 

Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Co. . 8,000,000 

People's Eealty & Finance Co 10,000,000 

Pipe— Federal Sewer Pipe Co . . . 23,000,000 

Globe Sewer Pipe Co 6,000,000 

National Pipe & Tube Co 11,000,000 

U. S. Cast Iron & Foundry 

Co 74,000,000 

Somer Pipe Co 25,000,000 

Pitch Trust 10,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 69 

Plumbers' Supplies — American 

Plumbers' Supply & Lead 

Co $35,000,000 

Central Foundry Co 14,000,000 

Powder — International Smokeless 

Powder & Dynamite 10,000,000 

Prints— Print Cloth Pool 50,000,000 

Pumps — International Steam Pump 

Co. . 30,000,000 

Radiators — American Radiator Co . 10,000,000 

Railways — General Co 10,000,000 

Refrigerators — Electric Axle Light 

& Power Co 25,000,000 

Reynolds Tobacco Co 5,000,000 

Ribbon— Silk Ribbon Trust 12,000,000 

Ricker Electrical Vehicle Co 7,000,000 

Rolling Stock — American Railway 

Equipment Co 22,000,000 

Rope— Standard Rope & Twine Co. 12,000,000 
Rubber — Rubber Goods Mfgrs.' 

Co 50,000,000 

IT. S. Rubber Co 47,000,000 

Safes 17,500,000 

Salt— National Salt Co 12,000,000 

Sewing Machines — American Ma- 
chine Co 10,000,000 



70 How to Treat the Trusts 

Screws— National Screw Co $10,000,000 

Ships— American Ship BuildingCo. 20,000,000 
Shingles — Manufacturers of Wash- 
ington 5,000,000 

Shoe Machinery 25,000,000 

Shoes— Royalty Goods 20,000,000 

Silk— Eibbon Combination 30,000,000 

Stoves — Standard Gas Stove & 

Mfg. Co 5,000,000 

Stoves and Ranges — Cast Iron & 

Steel 75,000,000 

The IT. S. Steel Corporation 

covers in up-to-date, 9 steel 

trusts, besides owning iron 

and coal mines, railroads 

and lake and ocean steam- 
ships to transport its output 

in this country and to 

Europe. Its capital is now 

placed at $1,500,000,000 

The 9 combines are: 

American Steel & Wire 

Co., employing 24,000 men. 

American Tin Plate Co., 

employing 25,000 men. 



and How to Win in 1904. 71 

The 9 combines are: — Continued: 

American Sheet Steel 

Co., employing 22,000 men. 

American Steel Hoop 

Co., employing 14,000 men. 

American Bridge Co., 

employing . 20,000 men. 

Federal Steel Co., em- 
ploying 16,000 men. 

National Steel Co., em- 
ploying 8,000 men. 

National Tube Co., em- 
ploying 20,000 men. 

Carnegie Co., employing 50,000 men. 

Total 199,000 men. 

The other steel trusts are: 

Steel— American Steel Co $50,000,000 

Republic Iron & Steel Co 55,000,000 

Park Steel Co 10,000,000 

American Steel & Iron Co. . . 20,000,000 

Bethlehem Steel Co 15,000,000 

Cambria Steel Co 16,000,000 

Steel Beams Association 20,000,000 

Rails, Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion 50,000,000 



J 2 How to Treat the Trusts 

Sedantine Chemical Co $15,000,000 

Severy Process Co 7,000,000 

Snuff— Atlantic Snuff Co 10,000,000 

Sugar— American Beet Sugar Co. 19,000,000 
Sugar — American Sugar Refining 

Co 75,000,000 

Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar 

Co 10,000,000 

Tanneries — American Hide & 

Leather Co 60,000,000 

Telegraph — Western Union Tele- 
graph Co., has 22,000 offices 97,000,000 
Telephones — American Bell Tele- 
phone Co 75,000,000 

Threshing Machines 75,000,000 

Thread— American Thread Co 12,000,000 

Scott-Janney Electric Co 30,000,000 

Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron 20,000,000 

Angle- American Thread Co. . 18,000,000 
Tires — Consolidated Rubber Tire 

Co 10,000,000 

Tinware — National Enameling & 

Stamping Co 30,000,000 

Twine — American Grass & Twine 

Co 15,000,000 



and How to Win in 1904. 73 

The tobacco interests are now com- 
bining into one corporation, 
the trusts controlling special 
branches of tobacco manu- 
facture. They are: 
Tobacco — American Tobacco Co. .$73,000,000 

Continental Tobacco Co 100,000,000 

Tobacco and Cigars — Havana 

Commercial Co 20,000,000 

United States & Havana Cigar 

Co 15,000,000 

Typewriters — Union Typewriter 

Co 18,000,000 

Varnish— U. S. Varnish Co 36,000,000 

Vehicles— General Carriage Co... 20,000,000 
N. Y. Electric Vehicle Co. . . 25,000,000 

K Y. Auto Truck Co 10,000,000 

If ew England Electric Vehicle 

& Transportation Co 25,000,000 

The Philadelphia Auto Truck 

Co 10,000,000 

Illinois Electric Vehicle Trans- 
portation Co 25,000,000 

Woods Motor Vehicle Co 10,000,000 

Wharves — Brooklyn Wharf & 

Warehouse Co 12,500,000 



74 How to Treat the Trusts 

Wheels— Car Wheels Co $15,000,000 

Whiskey — American Spirits Mfg. 

Co 35,000,000 

Kentucky Distilleries & Ware- 
house Co 32,000,000 

Standard Distilling & Dis- 
tributing Co 24,000,000 

The distilling companies are now 

consolidating into one corporation. 

Worsteds— The TJ. S. Worsted Co. 70,000,000 

Woolens — American Woolen Co. . 65,000,000 

There is talk of a billion dollar cotton seed 
oil trust, and.the formation of others is going on 
steadily. Ex-Speaker Tom Heed has just 
organized the Oil Cloth trust; capital, $10,000,- 
000. 

It shows he has little fear that his share of 
the profits for his services will be jeopardized 
by the "unceasing warfare" of the democrats. 
And when we consider the enormous capital, the 
extent of the plants, with the labor necessary 
to operate them in the above list and what it 
will be three years hence, most of us would be 



and How to Win in 1904. 75 

inclined to agree with the New York Sun, that 
smashing trusts would be a very dangerous 
operation for the country. 

The Commoner of July 26, 1901, comment- 
ing on the plutocratic methods of threatening 
panics if the people refuse to indorse their 
policies, quotes from the Sun as a sample: 

" 'We demand the suppression of all trusts/ 
There is a monstrous proposition. Were there 
any way of carrying it into effect industrial dis- 
aster more widespread and ruinous than has ever 
fallen upon the country would be the result. 
There would be a commercial cataclysm. The 
amount of capital and of labor dependent upon 
these combinations is so vast that to crush them 
would be to bring on unparalleled economic 
calamity compared with which the free coinage 
of silver would have been a fly bite." 

As to the danger from free coinage of silver, 
the Sun, while opposed to it in 1896, was honest 
enough to admit that it was absurd to say it 
would bring on disaster. 



J 6 How to Treat the Trusts 

The Ohio platform of 1901, says the trusts 
must be destroyed to save the people from 
Socialism, which means of course, the horrors of 
public ownership of the trust. This is long- 
headed statesmanship. As the Commoner says, 
the Ohio platform is "a little timid" on national 
questions ; but it demands a referendum vote on 
franchises. 

That is encouraging, for surely the party that 
favors a referendum vote on franchises, cannot 
very well refuse the people a referendum vote 
on trusts. 

As Col. Bryan says: "That is all we ask for." 

The people know what they want, if they 
could only get a chance to vote for it, but com- 
pelling them to decide twenty or more questions 
with one vote, does not give them a chance. 



and How to Win in 1904. 77 



"STKICT CONSTKUCTIONISTS." 

Democrats call themselves strict construction- 
ists of the Constitution. To the mass of the peo- 
ple, the people who do the work of the country, 
this is "interesting, but not important." They 
know'how strictly the Constitution and the laws 
are construed by the "injunction judges" in 
any attempt of labor to secure a more equitable 
share of the benefits derived from the great in- 
ventions and great natural resources of the coun- 
try. Labor-saving inventions under our present 
system do not shorten their hours of labor, but 
throw men out of employment, while one of the 
latest inventions — government by injunction — 
deprives them of the right to speak to their com- 
petitors for work, who are flocking from all parts 
of the world to take their places. Other re- 
pressive and oppressive methods of the most 

L.ofC. 



78 How to Treat the Trusts 

scandalous description are resorted to by the 
Dogberrys of the bench, who are .sometimes 
relatives of the bosses and partners in their 
plants. Strict construction, the decisions of the 
courts, from the highest to the lowest, have for 
years been regarded by labor with the most 
perfect indifference or the most profound 
contempt. 

But there is one court the workers know they 
could appeal to and get justice. Hence we find 
congressional candidates who are known to be 
advocates of direct legislation, running ahead of 
their tickets, and workingmen rendering them 
"substantial aid on account of it," while Samuel 
Gompers, president of the American Federation 
of Labor, despairing of any amelioration of 
labor under the present system, appeals to the 
instincts of humanity in the citizen to help 
secure that improvement in our system that 
would bring an end to the bloodshed and the 
starvation of the strike and the .lockout, and 



and How to Win in 1904. 79 

secure justice to all. As previously quoted, lie 
says: 

"All lovers of the human family, all who 
earnestly strive for political reform, economic 
justice and social enfranchisement, must range 
themselves on the side of organized labor in this 
demand for direct legislation." 

Here is the party's chance. So far, it has 
kept the mechanical and the agricultural work- 
ers of the country apart, to its own loss. But 
on this issue they could combine. There is no 
threat to either class of workers in direct legis- 
lation. Instead, it means everything to them, 
as President Gompers' language clearly indi- 
cates. And what citizen who is worthy of the 
name of citizen, would oppose it ? 

None but the plutocratic element would op- 
pose it. The year 1904 should be an epoch 
making year* 



do How to Treat the Trusts 



LOED BYKOtf SAYS: 

The history of man, according to Byron, has 
always moved in a circle. "First liberty, then 
glory, after that wealth, vice, corruption, bar- 
barism at last. And history with all her volumes 
vast hath but one page." 

The Swiss people broke through this sinister 
circle at last by the simple plan of taking the 
power to veto or approve legislation, into their 
own hands. 

About twenty years ago I asked, have we 
brains enough to break the circle? Again I 
ask, have we brains enough? 

Who should lead in the movement ? Neces- 
sarily those who are its leading advocates. And! 
the man who has brought direct legislation most 
prominently before the people, the man who 
was delegated to bring it before the platform 



and How to Win in 1904. 



81 



committee of the national Democratic conven- 
tion of 189 6, and who I believe was instru- 
mental in getting it and the other progressive 
planks into the platform of 1900, should be the 
commander-in-chief. Who is he? 
Ask the Commoner. 




i 



15710 MAK 191902 



1 COPY DEL. TO CAT. D«V. 
MAY 19 1902 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 051 413 2j 



